About Ideabook.com

Welcome to ideabook.com and Glen Allen, Virginia. I like to think of this site as a place on a map. A place that is, perhaps, hundreds, even thousands of miles from where you are seated. It's easy to lose sight of what a marvel it is to connect so easily with someone halfway around the world—I'm glad you stopped by.

My name is Chuck Green—my company is Logic Arts Corporation. We're located in Glen Allen, a suburb of Richmond, Virginia in the United States—roughly 100 miles south of Washington, D.C., 70 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean, and 80 miles east of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I am first and foremost a designer—secondarily an author. I started out at WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C., designing the graphics they put behind the newscasters. Today, I stay busy producing work for clients and writing for various publishers and publications.

Ideabook.com grew out of a book I wrote for Random House—The Desktop Publisher's Idea Book. It has grown far beyond my expectations into a fairly well traveled space for designers, beginner to advanced, who are interested in seeing how someone else does it.

About the original Desktop Publisher's Idea Book:

I'd say it is mandatory reading for anyone who takes their marketing seriously and wants to unleash the creativity that exists with them. JAY CONRAD LEVINSON, Author, Guerrilla Marketing

Chuck Green has made an extremely difficult subject as simple as it's going to get! JOHN McWADE, Publisher, Before & After Magazine

What's in it for me? My hope is that if you find some useful material, you'll find your way into the Ideabook Design Store and buy a book, a template collection, or one of the other products we offer. No pressure, just take a look.

TUTORIALS > Ideabook.com is a resource for the designer, copywriter, illustrator, photographer, design student, and anyone else interested in the disciplines of design and marketing. The comprehensive archive of free tutorials offers insights on design, page layout, the use of color, illustration, photography, typography, print and Web design, and the business of design.

DESIGN LINKS > Jumpola.com is a wide-ranging list of links for designers and marketers divided into ten categories: Print Design, Web Design, Illustration, Photography, Typography, Graphics Technology, Marketing/PR, Reference, Design Shopping, and for fun, "Mind Vacations." No one pays for links except those labeled as advertisers. I welcome link suggestions but the great majority are simply sites I find through my obsession with wandering the Web.

MY BLOG > Pageplane.com is my blog—a place to record and share some of the great concepts, stunning designs, and examples of smart marketing I find in my online travels.

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP > is where you subscribe to my Ideabook E-Letter and Design Links Briefing (two emails per month).

My part of the world

Glen Allen is on the eastern edge of the Piedmont, a region of gently rolling hills that gradually rise to the west where they meet the Blue Ridge Mountain range. Because the region is hilly and much of it is forested, we don't have the grand vistas you see in the Midwest and western states. But the fact that you rarely see beyond a mile or two gives you a sense of intimacy you don't find in the vastness of a state like South Dakota or New Mexico. Not better, just different.

Richmond was built on the James River. If you stand on the steps of the Virginia State Capitol you'll see the river winding its way through town to the south. It is a shallow, powerful river that is spotted with rapids throughout the city.

Virginia, of course, has a rich history. In the morning, I walk over a rise to the elementary school, within sight of Mountain Road—the road Thomas Jefferson often traveled on his trips between Williamsburg and Charlottesville. Even for a guy like me, whose total knowledge of history would fit inside a thimble (with ample space for everything I know about algebra), Virginia is a fascinating place. If you've never been here, I encourage you to visit—it's well worth a trip.